Kim is back from vacation!

What makes a person spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars every year, re-purposing, repairing and giving hundreds of bicycles away to local children in-need?
Ask Kim Camara of Yesteryear Cyclery why he does it, the next time you see him!

We met four remarkable young women today. Girl Scouts all and they were on a mission – a mission to make a difference.

We asked their leader to write a short background on this small but mighty group, this is what she had to say – “When we started our Girl Scout season this year we had a significantly smaller troop. The girls that stayed had one common interest and that was to volunteer and make a difference.

They started together as little girls being led by leaders. They are now young women making their own decisions and leading others to make a difference. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to make a difference. We look forward to coming back.”

We just spent two days with students from the Rocky Hill School in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

It’s become an annual two day field trip and what’s the best for us is that we get to see students grow – not only in size and maturity but in their coming of age and increased connectiveness to giving and service. Photos from their service days are here.

Rather than explain more – we’d like to share what student Hunter Corbett had to say – ” Our annual Rocky Hill sophomore trip to GiftsToGive is one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the year. The upperclassmen fondly remember their excursion, and this year’s trip did not fail to live up to our high expectations. I think everyone in my class left with a desire to do more to help people. I know I am definitely going back to GiftsToGive to volunteer again in my free time.

Sometimes … kids will be kids and sometimes kids will be philanthropists!

We hosted a terrific group of students this week, from our neighborhood school, The Albert F. Ford Middle School in Acushnet. One hundred-eleven 7th graders. They arrived full of energy and curiosity and left tired, proud and with an enduring understanding of how very lucky they were. Tired from all the work they did. Proud of what they accomplished and with a new sense of their place in the world, of their responsibility to themselves and to help others.

Sunday morning in Acushnet … A crew from “AdLab” at the School of Communications at Boston University and our own Sophia; uber student volunteer, actress extraordinaire and 3rd grader!
Photos from our morning HERE

Peter Coyne, Theta Delta Chi Brother and Education Major had this to say –“I wasn’t sure what to expect when my fraternity, Theta Delta Chi, would be helping at GiftsToGive. Obviously I assumed we would be packaging toys and other things for children in need, but what I didn’t expect was the eye opening experience it turned out to be. Going on a tour of GiftsToGive was the first thing my fraternity did when we got there. I never knew some little old factory could contain tens of thousands of various items that are shipped to kids in need every day from this facility.

* UPDATE

Molly’s quest to collect 1,000 gently used sports balls has hit snag after snag, then last week something positive happened.

The back story – Initially Molly went to the Bruins and asked for help in the form of a player coming to New Bedford and she and her hockey team would host a skating event. The Bruins could not send a player but did offer some of their surplus equipment – so that is working itself through. Then Molly went to the Celtics for help and they also could not send a player down to New Bedford. (You can see Molly’s letters to them below).

The positive thing that happened last week came in the form of Boston University and FYSOP! Sixty-eight incoming BU freshmen spent two days at the mill helping us process clothes (we were at the critical process place of swapping out summer clothes for winter clothes and getting ready for back to school.) See that story here.

Last week we received an email from Anthony Moccia asking to be connected to Molly. Who is Anthony Moccia you ask? Anthony is a senior at BU and was one of the chaperones for the the visiting BU freshmen. Here is Antony’s email –

The Berkley Girl Scouts Strike Again! This past week, Berkley Troop 75329 came back for a visit bringing a car-load of new toys for our Birthday Program. Photos here.

Here is what one of their leaders had to say: “Berkley Girl Scout Troop 75329 volunteered at GiftsToGive during our philanthropy badge back in January. The girls spent an afternoon from their winter vacation and processed clothes for children in need. Their afternoon made a significant impression on them.

Recently the troop had our annual cookie sales and the time came for the girls, ages eight and nine, to decide what to do with the money they had raised. Instead of using it for themselves, they decided to use a portion of their profits to buy toys for children in need and bring them to GiftsToGive. They could have decided to use them for anything, but GiftsToGive and their education on philanthropy made such an impression, that they were compelled to give back to children less fortunate than themselves.

Last Saturday, we met a most remarkable girl, seven year-old philanthropist Lyla.

We see thousands of children every year and most are special, some beyond words, some are extra special, some are even extraordinary and then there is Lyla. I say this because this seven year-old had processed and understood how lucky she was and felt she needed to act on her feelings.